C H A P T E R 1
The Design Process
■Use the results. As you observe, you will see users doing things you may never have expected them to do. When you see participants making mistakes, your first instinct may be to blame their inexperience or lack of intelligence. This is the wrong response to have. Remember that the purpose of observing users is to learn what parts of your product might be difficult to use or ineffective because of faulty product design.
■Watch for patterns. Just because one user has a problem with something, that doesn’t mean every user will. Carefully consider why the single user had the problem and consider discarding that finding if it can be easily explained, otherwise, recognize that the software may be faulty.
■Review all results with a cross-functional team comprising representatives of product management, marketing, engineering, human interface design, documentation, and quality assurance. Each of these participants will view the results through the lens of their own expertise, enabling them to provide valuable insights into various usability issues with which the users might have struggled.
Making Design Decisions
When making design decisions regarding features in your application, it’s important to weigh the costs, not all of which are financial, against the potential benefits. Every time you add a feature to your application, the following things can happen:
■Your application gets larger.
■Your application gets slower.
■Your application’s human interface becomes more complex.
■You spend time developing new features rather than refining existing features.
■Your application’s documentation and help become more extensive.
■You run the risk of introducing changes that could adversely affect existing features.
■You increase the time required to validate the behavior of your application.
Choosing appropriate features and devoting the needed resources to implement them correctly can save you time and effort later. Choosing poor feature sets or failing to assign appropriate design, engineering, testing, and documentation resources often incurs heavier costs later when critical bugs appear or users can’t figure out how to use your product.
The following sections present several additional factors to take into consideration before adding features to your product.
Avoid Feature Cascade
If you are developing a simple application, it can be very tempting to add features that aren’t wholly relevant to the original intent of the program. This feature cascade can lead to a bloated interface that is slow and difficult to use because of its complexity. Try to stick to the original intent of your program and include only features that are relevant to the main workflow.
The best products aren’t the ones with the most features. The best products are those whose features are tightly integrated with the solutions they provide, making them the most usable.
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2008-06-09 | © 1992, 2001-2003, 2008 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.
C H A P T E R 1
The Design Process
Apply the 80 Percent Solution
During the design process, if you discover problems with your product design, you might consider applying the 80 percent solution—that is, designing your software to meet the needs of at least 80 percent of your users. This type of design typically favors simpler, more elegant approaches to problems.
If you try to design for the 20 percent of your target audience who are power users, your design may not be usable by the other 80 percent of users. Even though that smaller group of power users is likely to have good ideas for features, the majority of your user base may not think in the same way. Involving a broad range of users in your design process can help you find the 80 percent solution.
Making Design Decisions |
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2008-06-09 | © 1992, 2001-2003, 2008 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.
C H A P T E R 1
The Design Process
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Making Design Decisions |
2008-06-09 | © 1992, 2001-2003, 2008 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved.